Metal: Hellsinger was a disappointment for me. I'm a huge fan of singleplayer FPS games like Doom Eternal (which this game clearly takes a lot of inspiration from), alongside really liking and being somewhat above average at rhythm games. I bought this game when it went on sale expecting it to be an easy home-run, but after beating it on the hardest default mode I came away from it feeling rather underwhelmed.

First off, the big selling point of the game is the music. I'm not a gigantic metal fan, but I can't deny that every single song in this soundtrack goes unbelievably hard. The song Dissolution was the reason why I bought the game in the first place and I stand by it being the best song in the game. The idea of syncing your shots to the rhythm of the song is neat, and occasionally makes for some badass moments. The lyrics only turning on after you get to the highest point multiplier is also an incredible incentive for you to actually play well.

However, outside of the music, the game is... kind of shallow. There are about four or five weapons that you can use, although you can only have two equipped per level. They aren't really anything to write home about, and do their job well enough. I also found the enemy variety to be rather limited; there are about a half-dozen unique enemies and a few of them have "upgraded" versions. Also, every boss (besides the final one) is the same enemy with a slight variation of both itself and the music, making each boss fight feel pretty repetitive.

I do think a reason why I didn't enjoy this game that much was due to me playing on the hard mode. The game clearly feels like it was meant to be played with "revives," but playing on hard mode gets rid of them. Every single level has zero checkpoints in it, meaning that if you die you have to do the whole level over again. Fortunately, they aren't THAT long, but it does feel like a slog to have to redo a 5-10 minute level after you died to the boss.

Metal: Hellsinger isn't a bad game, and in fact has some pretty awesome moments in it. Outside of the rhythm mechanic, though, the game's systems aren't interesting enough for me to ever want to replay it instead of just listening to the soundtrack by itself.

Tiny Rogues combines pretty much the best elements of many other roguelikes. Of course, it has all of the bullet hell goodness you'd expect from your Binding of Enter the Nuclear Hades, but adds onto it with the insane amount of run variety. Almost every single run you'll have will feel different one way or another. One run you'll be cleaving through enemies with a greatsword bigger than you, and in the next you'll melt off the final boss' face with DoT effects like that one scene from Indiana Jones. Almost all of the classes you can play as have specific builds they encourage, but you can pretty much build any class however you'd like if you really wanted to.

I would have given this game a good review even before the massive update it had in December but now it's even easier for me to recommend it. The fact that this game still has several updates planned for the future is ABSURD, since there's already so much content in this game.